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China handling Rio Tinto case 'expeditiously': Australia
Sao Paulo (AFP) Aug 26, 2009 China is handling "expeditiously" the case of an arrested Australian executive with mining giant Rio Tinto who faces bribery charges, Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said Wednesday. Smith reiterated that Australia viewed it as "a good thing" that the executive, Stern Hu, was being investigated on criminal charges rather than the more serious espionage allegations China had initially leveled against him. Hu, the head of Rio Tinto's sales team in China, was formally arrested earlier this month on charges of accepting bribes and illegally obtaining commercial secrets from Chinese steel enterprises. Hu and three Chinese employees of the Anglo-Australian mining company were detained in July. Chinese authorities initially accused them of the much more serious crime of stealing state secrets, which can carry the death penalty. The detentions occurred after Rio Tinto snubbed a 19.5-billion-dollar attempt by China's state-owned metals group Chinalco to buy a stake in it, raising speculation the events were linked. Smith, who was in the middle of a four-day trip to Brazil and Chile to boost ties, was cautious when asked about the Rio Tinto case. "We have a number of difficulties in the relationship with China at the moment," he acknowledged. "We will work through those issues and the strength of the economic relationship and the strength of the economic partnership will continue." He said that while China was conducting its investigation "expeditiously" and in line with Chinese law, he noted "those timetables of course can be varied or extended at prosecutorial or investigative authority discretion." Smith stressed that the charges Hu was arrested on "relate to Chinese criminal law rather than state secrets and we regard that as a good thing." Smith added that Hu had received two consular visits so far and access had been granted to his Chinese lawyer. "He's now legally represented. We continue to make representations on his behalf, discharging our consular responsibilities and we'll continue to do so," the Australian minister said. Share This Article With Planet Earth
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